India, USA Track 1.5 Dialogue Next Week to Push Ties After PM Modi’s Visit

The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) will convene one of largest gathering of over 300 private sector executives, global CEOs, and the U.S. and Indian government leaders at the second Annual Leadership Summit in New Delhi on October 21. The theme of the summit – ‘ Partners For Growth’ will be a full spectrum discussion on the current state of play and the growth trajectory of the U.S.-India bilateral ties. This summit is significant in the backdrop of PM Narendra Modi’s recent US visit and prospective Indo-US trade deal.

Speakers at the summit will include Minister of External Affairs, Dr. S. Jaishankar; Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas & Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan; Minister of Commerce and Industry & Railways, Piyush Goyal; Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Anurag Thakur; Ram Madhav, National General Secretary of the BJP; Former US Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice; Former US Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger; Technical Advisor of Alphabet Inc. and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt; President & CEO, Bank of the West, Nandita Bakhshi; Chairman of PwC Global Bob Moritz; President of Emerson Mike Train, Chief Legal & Policy Officer, Netflix, David Hyman, among many others.

In a recent report, USISPF estimates that by 2025, bilateral trade could range between $283 billion to $327 billion, at an annual average growth rate of 10%-12.5% (as witnessed in 2017 and 2018). The assessment underscores a roadmap for growth and economic opportunity in the bilateral ties by highlighting current trends. Sectors such as defense trade, commercial aviation, oil and LNG, coal, machinery and electronics are areas of potential growth in U.S. investments into India. Similarly, Indian industry has an opportunity to promote key sectors including automotive, pharmaceuticals, seafood, IT and travel services to the U.S. market.

John Chambers, Chairman of USISPF, said, “The USISPF annual summit is an opportunity for effective champions of the U.S.-India relationship tocome together. Participants will use the momentum built after Prime Minister’s re-election to continue finding opportunities to strengthen the most strategic country partnership in the world. My challenge to them is to specifically explorepathways to achieve $327 billion in bilateral tradeand promote innovative thinking to address pressing regional and global issues.”

USISPF President& CEO, Dr. Mukesh Aghi said, “The theme of the summit – ‘Partners for Growth’ highlights the deep convergence between the United States and India, both in terms of geo-politics and geo-economics.An economically strong India is necessary for advancing the US-India commercial partnership. The Modi 2.0 government has initiated a steady stream of economic reforms within a short period of time. One of the industry’s top asks that was included in our 100 day recommendations to the Government was to lower corporate tax rates— and we are delighted to see its implementation and also closer collaboration between government and industry.”

The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum is committed to creating the most powerful strategic partnership between the U.S. and India. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., USISPF has offices in New York, Silicon Valley, Mumbai, and New Delhi.

Source: ET

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